~ Reflections on life, for the most part in the form of book reviews

Category Archives: Baseball

The Boston Red Sox feature in my baseball experience predominantly as the opposition. They were the team that the New York Mets beat in the 1986 World Series to secure my support in my first introduction to the game as a teenager, and they were the humiliated visitors to Yankee Stadium when I saw my first, and currently only, live baseball game on a family holiday in 2015. The advantage of being a distant fan of the game, however, is that any team can be of interest as they lack the stain of intimate battle that a local rival would have.

Lost Summer is the story of the 1967 Red Sox and their “100 to 1 shot” at winning the American League pennant. As with all my favourite baseball books there is a developing history that sits alongside the game with the shadow of the Vietnam War looming large, as well bubbling racial tensions and a growing generational divide, but this was a book in which it was the sporting narrative that really grabbed a hold of me.

This was a new era of the game for me with different teams coming to the fore and new heroes stepping up to the plate. I didn’t need to have seen the Red Sox play to understand why the fans idolised Carl Yastrzemski, who played the season of his life to lead the Sox to the pennant. Reynolds painted all of the pictures and Lonberg, Scott, Smith, Petrocelli and manager Dick Williams, the right man at the right time to turn around a failing club, came alive on the pages.

The relationships that develop between the players as they sense that they are moving from being perennial losers to a side that is genuinely challenging for the pennant provide real insight into the strong bonds that being part of a successful team create. The growing excitement of the city of Boston and surrounding state as they recognise that something special is happening and they are drawn to Fenway and to their team captures so much of what it means to be a sports fan.

Although this was a baseball book and the teams involved were not only playing a different sport but in a different country and a different era, as its pages drew to a close I found myself reflecting more than anything on my own support for Nottingham Forest, my local football team. I felt a greater understanding of the bonds that must exist between the “Miracle Men” who won back to back European Cups and some of whom I have interviewed for the fanzine Bandy & Shinty. I also felt more than ever a burning desire for Forest to achieve what has increasingly become their own impossible dream, returning to the top flight of English football.

“Wait Till Next Year” was the refrain of Dodgers fans back in the days when they still resided in Brooklyn and were perennial bridesmaids at the Yankees’ many weddings. If you were a regular reader of this website then you’ve had to wait a little over a year as other aspects of life have pushed reading to one side for me. Heading into 2019, however, I am back on track and space has opened up for books once more with Doris Kearns Goodwin’s childhood memoir getting me off to a strong start.

I’m a fan of football and baseball, but when I read books about them I like an author to mix in a bit of social history and context that takes them beyond being simple sports books. Wait Till Next Year takes us back to the author’s early years and combines a love for the Dodgers, inherited from a father who taught his daughter to score games while listening to the radio, with the changing world of the 1950s.

Goodwin is a celebrated historian so it is no surprise that she seamlessly blends the Dodgers legends of Robinson, Campanella, Snider and Pee Wee Reese with major historical events such as the Cold War, McCarthyism, Korea and perhaps most engagingly the development of suburban America. The movement of families from the city to the newly built suburbs, the development of friendships, a Catholic upbringing and deep connections within a new local community are all well drawn, as is the place of baseball in the culture with key games broadcast into school.

The ‘50s Dodgers have featured quite heavily in my baseball reading to date so the names are familiar and it was nice to share in the author’s memories of them. It’s a time that is hard to imagine from the perspective of both the struggles to overcome racism and also the impending departure of legendary teams to the opposite coast. Racism continues to cast a shadow over football in England but segregation thankfully seems completely alien, whilst the one experience of franchising in the game continues to stoke anger in many football fans.

The Giants and Dodgers continue their rivalry in California now but as a result of my reading it is hard for me not to associate them with New York and Brooklyn. I’ve visited the AT&T stadium in San Francisco but I pine for the Polo Grounds and Ebbett’s Field even though I will never see them. My relationship with baseball is like that, rooted more in a sentimental association with the history of the game and its place in culture than the latest round of games, and formed from the writing of eloquent fans like Doris Kearns Goodwin.

The tagline for this history of the formation of baseball’s American Association reads “How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America’s Game” and the book contains all of the colour, fascination and anticipation that the pitch suggests. The story is all brought together through the 1883 pennant race which goes right to the wire as an astonishing cast of characters combine to save a distrusted game ravaged by cheats and gamblers.

Behind it all are of course enterprising men trying to make money, but they are also passionate sports fans and driven to save the game from its past reputation, as well as bring success to their respective cities and money to their own pockets. The combination of personal stories of triumph and pain, broader social history and the excitement of a competitive season of play is a heady mix that educates and entertains in equal measure. The reader quickly builds relationships with the owners, players and teams of this upstart association and delights at their efforts to bring home the prize.

The only sour touch comes from the appalling racism which cast a shadow over the period and is shocking in its ignorance and pervasiveness. It was another 60 years before Jackie Robinson bravely crossed the colour line and the book does not shirk the unpleasant truths of open abuse and discrimination. But in this way it ensures that we get a full and authentic view of the game at the time and the book does that exceptionally well. Baseball is America’s game but it might not have been without the passion and energy of these remarkable men. Achorn has paid them a memorable tribute in this well researched and captivating work.

Last summer I spent three weeks in the USA and took the opportunity to indulge a long held interest in the game of baseball. Ever since the New York Mets 1986 World Series victory was covered by Channel 4 I had been intrigued by the game and that was further fuelled by W P Kinsella’s wonderful book Shoeless Joe, the resultant film Field of Dreams and a canon of other movies about the sport.

My stay in New York unfortunately coincided with the Yankees being in town rather than the Mets, but I swallowed my allegiances and headed to Yankee Stadium to see the hosts demolish long time rivals the Boston Red Sox in my first ever live game. I loved the whole experience, except maybe the catering stand prices, thrilled to finally be watching a game.

John Feinstein’s book is about life in the minor leagues away from the glamour and big pay cheques of the majors. It’s a fascinating introduction to the journeys of players, coaches, umpires and announcers as he follows the fortunes of a colourful cast of characters as they seek to either achieve or recapture their dreams of being in the “Bigs”. As a football fan in England who supports a Championship club and also follows non-league football the book resonates across sports.

If you are interested in baseball and would like to know more about the game and the people invested in it I cannot recommend this book, from a National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame member, enough.

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